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Adele August (Susan Sarandon) is an eccentric woman who, with her reluctant daughter, Ann (Natalie Portman), leaves a small Wisconsin town and moves to Beverly Hills to realize her dreams. However, it becomes apparent that Adele is uncertain of what those dreams are - expressing ideas such as marrying a rich man - and often makes irresponsible and impulsive decisions, such as purchasing a used Mercedes she cannot afford in order to drive to Beverly Hills. While upset with Adele's decisions, the more practical Ann finds she cannot leave her mother and resents her for leaving Ann's stepfather for a better life. Furthermore, Ann still loves her father, who left her family when Ann was still young.

When living in Beverly Hills, Adele improvises from day to day, often unable to pay the bills. She winds up dating a successful dentist, but learns that he doesn't love her and has dumped her for a younger woman. Things get complicated when Adele has a fight with Jimmy and Ann starts dating her crush, Peter. Forcing her daughter to enroll in Beverly Hills High School, where a lot of rich kids and movie star kids go to, Adele hopes that Ann will become an actress and attend UCLA, despite Ann's interest in going away to Brown University. Though Adele fails in many respects, she eventually accepts her daughter's plans and decides to help her.

The film received positive reviews from critics. It currently holds a 64% on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus reads: "The clever reversal of roles between Portman and Sarandons' characters (Portman is constantly worried and looking out for her mother, not vice versa) makes the movie interesting and worth watching. Transcends the tired cliche well."[2]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars and noted "The movie's interest is not in the plot, which is episodic and 'colorful,' but in the performances. Sarandon bravely makes Adele into a person who is borderline insufferable. Sarandon's role is trickier and more difficult, but Portman's will get the attention. In 'Anywhere But Here,' she gets yanked along by her out of control mother, and her best scenes are when she fights back, not emotionally, but with incisive observations."[3]